1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a flat antenna contained in a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone (including PHS), a mobile radio, a note type personal computer, and the like, and more particularly, to a more productive method of manufacturing a flat antenna.
2. Prioir Art
There is known, as a conventional antenna contained in a mobile terminal, an antenna composed of, for example, a printed circuit board on which a conductive pattern having a power feeder and a ground are formed with the power feed terminal and the ground terminal of the antenna abutted against the power feeder and the ground, respectively making use of the elasticity of the antenna. This antenna is gold plated only at the terminals of a metal sheet used as a material thereof to stabilize the conductivity of contacts. The cost of the antenna can be reduced by applying gold plating only to necessary portions.
To apply gold plating only to the terminals of the metal sheet as described above, there is conventionally employed a method of punching and molding a metal sheet, hooking respective molded products on jigs, and dipping only the terminals of the molded products at the extreme ends thereof in a plating solution (first method).
Else, a method of masking a metal sheet at a plurality of positions such that plating is applied only to the terminals of the metal sheet before it is punched (second method).
According to the conventional antenna, however, the first method is not suitable for mass-production because it is very time consuming to hook the molded products on the jigs individually. Further, the second method requires a performance of time-consuming job for masking the metal sheet individually.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a more productive method of manufacturing a flat antenna.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a flat antenna including the steps of applying strip-shaped plating to the front surface of a metal sheet, punching the metal sheet, and arranging a portion of the strip-shaped plated portion of the punched metal sheet as a plurality of terminals.
According to this arrangement, the strip-shaped plating is applied to the front surface of the plurality of terminals by dipping the metal sheet into a plating solution after a masking tape or a plurality of masking tapes have been bonded to the metal sheet.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a flat antenna having the steps of applying strip-shaped plating to the front surface of a long metal sheet along the lengthwise direction thereof, punching the metal sheet at a plurality of positions in the lengthwise direction thereof, and arranging a portion of the strip-shaped plating of each of the metal sheets punched at the plurality of positions as a plurality of terminals.
According to this arrangement, the productivity of the flat antenna can be improved by punching the long metal sheet at the plurality of positions sequentially or simultaneously.
The strip-shaped plating may be applied in a plurality of parallel stripes. Corrosion prevention plating may be applied to at least the front and back surfaces of the metal sheet, and then the strip-shape plating may be applied to the corrosion prevention plating of the front surface of the metal sheet. The metal sheet may be punched such that the plurality of terminals project, and then the plurality of terminals are bent. After the metal sheet is punched, the punched metal sheet may be attached to a holder composed of a dielectric material.